Everyone is writing about immunotherapy, the cancer therapy that prods a patient's immune system into attacking and eradicating a tumor. It seems to work: Jimmy Carter is likely alive because of it. That's great. Not complaining!​What I object to, however, is how publications spin this story. The headlines are inaccurate. Everyone from the NYTimes to HuffPost starts immunotherapy stories with the same tired proclamation, e.g., Scientists Harness the Power of the Immune System to Eradicate Cancer! As if the immune system in cancer is a wild bull wreaking cellular havoc.

Wrong disease NYTImes and HuffPost headline writers!

No harness necessary.

You are mistaking cancer for AutoImmune conditions like Rheumatoid Arthritis, MS, or Crohn's Disease, diseases in which the immune system really does run amok and attack "yourself".

Cancer works differently. In it, a patient's immune system instead is paralyzed by signals emitted by malignancies: rather than ripping a tumor to shreds, immune T cells in cancer become sleeping dogs. They last thing they need is a "harness". Instead, they need a swift kick in the immuno-ass to wake up and start attacking.

And that is what immunotherapy does molecularly: in short, it stifles signals sent by tumors that effectively suppress immune cells, and in so doing awakens flagging tumor-killing cells.

So, headline writers, keep talking about this but get your metaphors straight. Try announcing that smart scientists have now learned how to UNharness/UNleash/rouse/resurrect/"put some teeth into"/light a fire under/boost/goose (!) a patient's immune cells. It's a fabulous story worth getting right.